This does not mean that they are true Christians, though. Actually, as their dogma seems to go against the vice of resentfulness and preaches forgiveness and acceptance, it is actually a clear demonstration of their lackluster affiliation with their religion.

Are you suggesting that Jesus Christ, whether a fictional character or real person, preached violence and hatred?

I am suggesting that Christians are not inherently good people, and that if someone who professes to be a Christian acts like an awful person, then they are both a Christian and an awful person. Being a Christian does not free you from evil acts, and evil acts do not rescind your faith. Look at pedophilia in the catholic church as an example.

This doesn't apply solely to Christianity. It applies to any religion. All of it is grounded on personal belief, so the only qualification for them being of that religion is if they think and say they are.

so did you read it mr. devout fedora feminist?
tell me are christians killing people for god nowadays?
the bible tells us about god and the life of that era which is pretty much like the life we have nowadays
wars, murder, perversion you name it

My personal belief is that there is a god that all of earth's gods derived from but much like the game telephone, different cultures all lost the truth of the universe through generations of communication errors.

Identification has nothing to do with what you write on forms or how often you talk to people. Just your closest approximation to the type of language that best describes your belief. There's nothing wrong with identifying. As far as "their beliefs" that's not really a thing. Spiritual but not religious is not a group or organization. There are no "beliefs". It's just a phrase that people who don't practice organized religion, but still have some belief in spiritual matters.

Let me guess: the "hateful" Christians were telling people that all human beings are sinners and need to be forgiven in order to get into Heaven, and that if they live a life of unrepentant sin they will go to Hell. Rather than engaging in any thoughtful self-examination, most of the students decided to just bitch about how "hateful" the 2,000 year old message of Christianity is for not telling everyone how wonderful and perfect they are - completely ignoring the fact that if the Christian worldview has even a chance of being true, warning people about the consequences of sin is a selfless act of love.

Religion has no place at an institute of learning. The buildings are likely public, so they cant be forced to leave, but I'm quite sure that my campus would inssist that they leave aswell.

That said, even if the message is true, and even if it is out of selfless love that they're doing it, they still need to understand that some people dont want to hear it. The reason hardly matters. If they dont want to hear it, they shouldn't be giving them that message. Its like if I went up to a random dude on the street and started explaining Electromagnetism or Cosmological theory to him. Sure, what I'm saying might be true, but the dude dosen't wanna ******* hear.

well, sometimes religion has a place at an institute of learning.
like if you are learning about religion, or the affect of religion, or studying religious writing, or religious artifacts, or if there is a museum within the institute of learning with religious exhibits, or if you are learning history and you come across historical religion, or if its a religious institute of learning, or if the institute of learning has inspired a religion, with a cult following of learning.

despite popular belief, religion has been incredibly important throughout history, with religious motivation behind political events or behind the building of a nation. religion had a pretty big impact on the creation of most of the western hemisphere.

Then that isn't really religion. That is an aspect of the Humanities subjects, which happens to have religion has a big focal point, since religion has had a big impact on how we build our societies and have we behave to each other.
I am in no way denying that religion has been important, but rather that its practise or advocation has little to nothing, to do with learning.
The fact that religious people are going to campus, are implying that the practise or advocation of religion has a place in the universities. They dont. They should be kept very far away from those placeses.

I don't know about this case specifically, but the hateful christians on my campus started shouting at a paralyzed guy saying he's already going to hell for his sins and that his illness was a result of those sins. Not exactly spreading the love.

Have you not seen these guys with their crap that says stuff like "GOD HATES fags trannies ******* protestants catholics jews muslims whores druggies alcoholics liberals feminists" etc.? That is not communicating the message of God's love for humanity and desire to see us saved. All it does is spread hate and damage any genuine effort to convince people that Christianity is worthwhile.

If it's the westboro nutcases, they don't even think anyone can be saved but themselves. They just hate because they like being hated back. In their twisted little brains, that means they're right! The Bible says so!

Matthew 10:22
You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

I don't know if you've been to a college campus where crazy pastors like to "preach," but it definitely isn't just "we are sinners, please repent." They shout insults at everyone they can and pretty much tell everyone to **** themselves. At least on my campus, they're legitimately hateful.

So Christians represent love by trying to convert others? Let me go tell the millions of pagans and "heretics" that were executed for not following Christianity that they were murdered a and tortured in the name of love.

dont blame the things other people did in the past on people in the present
millions of pagans also raped and pillaged innocent christians, and christians killed and suppressed the culture of innocent pagans.

***** in the past. forgive and forget and all that.
keeping grudges only leads to new assholes making new grudges.

So that means that the Germany should be forgiven for the holocaust? What about the US forgiving Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden for the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center? Ya know, cause that ***** in the past.

Yes. Nobody is born a christian. It's an action, an ideology. Something you can become, or lose. Being black is none of those things.

And FYI, all you have to do to be a Christian is believe Jesus Christ is god. Everything else is optional. You don't have to go to church, or be nice, or pray, or anything. News flash - the WBC followed the Bible more closely than most Christians today.

I'm pretty sure they're not. Sorry if that upsets you. If you want to follow a religion you have to abide by its tenets, otherwise you're a hypocrite and not a member of the religion you profess to follow. That's how these things work. Call yourself all you want, but it's empty words unless you do more than lip service.

No. You don't have to actually follow the religion to consider yourself a member. Christians are hypocrites ALL the time. Get it through your head. Being a Christian does NOT make you a good person, and being a good person is NOT a requirement for being religious. Take your apologetics elsewhere.

To be fair, people in general are hypocrites all the time. Congratulations on shutting down people with less defensible arguments than you, but if you actually want to convince people your position is right you might consider being a little less vitriolic in your responses.

If instead you're just being an ass to blow off steam, then that's your prerogative.

It certainly is. But I lose all respect for someone in a discussion when they start acting like this person did. Then I accept that I am being an asshole because I no longer feel this person is worthy or capable of civil discussion.

The Bible says everything I just said. Also, the stoning passages are in the Old Testament, as I recall, which are not only archaic, but not necessarily Christian doctrine. Christianity is following the word of Jesus CHRIST, and he was basically a socialist peacenik with a generous streak a mile wide.

I think you two might be defining the term differently. It seems like Yllek is using the broadest possible definition of what makes a person a "Christian," while schneid is thinking in terms of what makes a person a "good Christian."

Also, to be clear, belief that Jesus is God is not a prerequisite for being Christian, there are denominations that believe Jesus was the Son of God but not one with Him. A better baseline prerequisite for the label might be belief that Jesus died to save humanity from sin and was then resurrected.

Fair enough. But there are plenty of Christians who do not follow beliefs as set by the Bible. There are tons of lukewarm Christians who consider themselves Christian because their parents are, rather than because they have an actual belief. There are Christians I've met who don't believe in Hell. There are Christians I've met who think Christianity isn't a religion. There are Christians who believe in cutting back funding for the poor. There are Christians that believe that throwing the first punch is acceptable (see the atheist professor copypasta for an example that people champion). There are Christians who think issuing death threats to atheists for being atheists is acceptable.

Christians are hypocrites all the time, like most people, as you've said, because they aren't different from most people. They're just people. They're not on some moral pedestal like glayn would like to claim, where only the REAL Christians are all saints and martyrs.

I don't think they're on any kind of pedestal. A lot of the time Christians make me despise them, mostly when they're talking **** on chat shows about how evolution never happened, or how Christianity should be taught as though it's fact. I'm not a Christian myself either, but you can't claim to be part of any kind of group without following its tenets. The new Testament as far as I understand preaches to love thy neighbour regardless, and to help them where you can, it's a pretty open ended deal and a pretty nice ideology when people aren't trying to use it as an excuse to ram their religion down your throat. Spreading hate and judging people is very much NOT in the new Testament. In fact I'm pretty sure that guy Jesus said something about throwing stones only if you're sinless, and no one is according to him. So people who do can't try to call themselves CHRISTian if they don't want to follow CHRIST's ideology.

Well that's the whole point I've been arguing. While you've been saying stuff like

"I'm pretty sure they're not. Sorry if that upsets you. If you want to follow a religion you have to abide by its tenets, otherwise you're a hypocrite and not a member of the religion you profess to follow. That's how these things work."

Either you're amazingly stupid or you're doing your best to troll here.

If you want to follow a religion you do as it says. That's what religions are. End of.

You asked why the word Christian was in quotation. Because they where acting UNchristian. And doing the opposite of what the religion wants. Not because they where being a dick or because they're an ass hole. Is this now simple enough for you or do you need a step by step explanation.